Death of a tiger
While visualising a Royal Bengal Tiger, the picture I get is deadly and ferocious. But the news published in The Daily Prothom Alo on 22nd June 2008 showed me something else: A tiger taking shelter on the roof of a village hut. Its eyes were baffled and the ferocity was replaced by abysmal fear for life. We came to know that the tiger killed three people in the village of Dakkhin Kadamtala in Satkhira. So, to “avenge” the deaths it was killed and hung on a tree. Reading this in various newspapers, I had the following questions: 1) Why did the tiger come to the village? 2) When the tiger was already captured, was it really necessary to kill it? And 3) What is the rule for similar situations? The answer to the first question is easy as we all know that generally a tiger does not come out of forests to take a 'morning walk'. It came to the village because it could not find any food in its habitat.
The answer to the second question seems to be negative because the tiger was not causing any further harm--it actually looked like a frightened cat on the rooftop. As answer to the third question, Mr. Rajesh Chakma (Assistant Conservator of Forests) said that the rule was to tranquillise the tiger and then send it back to its habitat. If so, then why was the tiger beaten to death? I understand the sentiment of the villagers and I do not blame them. These people were not supposed to understand the matter. But I was really shocked reading Mr. Rajesh's statement- “We had the tranquilliser but our people there did not have the expertise of using it.” If this is the case, what is the point of having them in the first place? The Royal Bengal Tiger is one of the few animals that we are proud of and its population is currently dwindling fast. So, I expect our forest officials to ensure that these poor animals do not suffer from shortage of food. Keeping the deer population intact can be a good step in this regard.
I hope that in future our forest department will be able to send trained people to save the animals.
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